Contractor accused of scamming homeowners for gambling habit

Authorities catch a con man who they said was gambling away the money he's accused of stealing.

It's a lucky break Spencer County authorities were hoping for.

Police said Barry Gray was at Belterra Casino over the weekend gambling hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that caught the attention of the gaming commission who quickly found out from police where that money was coming from.

Mike and Bernice Greene paid a contractor thousands of dollars for a perfect home, but all they got was a muddy mess.

"Looking back on it now, he was the perfect con man," said Mike Greene. "He talked about being brought up a good Christian man. He just said all the right things."

And at first, they said, Gray did everything right.

"He did the roof and he pretty much completed that job, did it fairly well," said Bernice Greene

So the Greenes asked him to fix their patio and pave a driveway, but the jobs they asked him to do last August never happened.

"He sent us a letter saying the reason he hadn't been out was that he had been ill," said Mike Greene.

It turns out, police said that's a scam Gray was running all along in Spencer County.

The sheriff said Gray got away with at least $150,000 doing that.

"The man's got a problem apparently with gambling, and I can understand that, but that doesn't justify what he's done," said Mike Greene.

Now, the Greenes are out thousands of dollars and their home's still torn apart.

"There's not anything you can do about it. You can be upset about it, you can be really angry, and just want to punch him or whatever, but what good is that going to do?" said Bernice Greene.

They hope the man who promised them a better home gets what he deserves.

"I hope he's put in a situation where he can't take advantage of anybody else," said Mike Greene.

Gray is now also being investigated in southern Indiana and Ohio for similar crimes.

He is currently being held in Switzerland County and will be extradited back to Spencer County next week.

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